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This is fascinating, but I’m left confused at the banality. Maybe it’s just the way the article was written, but truly, who cares that she can remember what was

This is fascinating, but I’m left confused at the banality. Maybe it’s just the way the article was written, but truly, who cares that she can remember what was playing on Netflix three years ago? It does cause me to wonder if brains are attuned to certain things - like in this woman’s case, is she particularly interested in celebrities and that’s why all the examples given are out of the tabloid headlines? The article left me with a lot of questions.

PKop 3y ago
Yea the choice of questions to ask her was ridiculous. I mean start there maybe, and escalate to something more interesting, or go further back in time etc. Such a lack of imagination. It's almost like everyone wanted to believe and didn't want to push the limits to break their impression of it being some super power.
- mateo1 3y ago
  Also with the other woman they used as an example, the only thing she did is say that X date was a Thrursday or something, which might simply be a trick and not a memory recall.
  - quintushoratius 3y ago
    Marilu Henner is somewhat known as a prodigy. She's a member of Mensa, things like that. The clip shown in the video was chosen poorly because it doesn't really convey her abilities. I just checked her Wikipedia page, and besides a passing mention of her HSAM its pretty spare. I seem to remember (ba-dum-tiss) that it used to be mote comprehensive.
- criddell 3y ago
  They asked for verifiable facts. I think those answers fit that criteria perfectly.
khazhoux 3y ago
> truly, who cares that she can remember what was playing on Netflix three years ago? That's kind of the point, though -- she retains trivial information that 99.9999% of brains will discard.
- poulsbohemian 3y ago
  Sure, and that’s kinda interesting in a savant way, but what was less clear to me from the article is whether she’s actually strong at memories where there is consciousness.
coldtea 3y ago
>This is fascinating, but I’m left confused at the banality. Maybe it’s just the way the article was written, but truly, who cares that she can remember what was playing on Netflix three years ago? Anybody who can understand the implications this has for understanding how memory works, creating memory enhancing drugs or gene alterations, and enhancing human cognition? I mean, DUH!
- poulsbohemian 3y ago
  I mean - is that really the case? It almost sounds like she’s just passively absorbing banal shit rather than there being any kind of consciousness. Kinda like a camera with an endless hard drive. Interesting, but what do you do with it?
  - coldtea 3y ago
    >It almost sounds like she’s just passively absorbing banal shit rather than there being any kind of consciousness. So? They don't want to use her as a trove of historically important information, but to study her as a person which "super memory". For that, it doesn't matter if it's about human anatomy, quantum physics, or what was said in every episode of Melrose Place. The mechanism by which those are absorbed and retained, and in such quality and recall is what's interesting, the content is not important. >Kinda like a camera with an endless hard drive. Interesting, but what do you do with it? If I was an engineer for a storage company I'd very much like to know how an "endless hard drive" works. It would solve tons of storage and archiving problems, and could make trillions. For human memory, a 2x or 3x or 10x increase in storage/recall efficiency would be a huge thing.
    - poulsbohemian 3y ago
      Sorry, I don’t think I’m making myself very clear… I think what I’m after here is almost like survivorship bias. Yes, she’s remembering all these things, but I’m wondering about all the things she isn’t either remembering or in control of remembering that would have otherwise been within here sphere to have remembered. From the article it wasn’t clear to me what control she actually has over any of this. Does that make sense?
jamestimmins 3y ago
The article mentions that given she is 18 years old and still in school, she mostly is aware of pop culture events and entertainment, but is less aware of current events or the broader world. This is pretty normal. Most kids aren't keeping up on politics or business news, especially if they're hyper focused on school (as she seems to be).

PKop 3y ago

Yea the choice of questions to ask her was ridiculous. I mean start there maybe, and escalate to something more interesting, or go further back in time etc. Such a lack of imagination. It's almost like everyone wanted to believe and didn't want to push the limits to break their impression of it being some super power.

mateo1 3y ago
Also with the other woman they used as an example, the only thing she did is say that X date was a Thrursday or something, which might simply be a trick and not a memory recall.
- quintushoratius 3y ago
  Marilu Henner is somewhat known as a prodigy. She's a member of Mensa, things like that. The clip shown in the video was chosen poorly because it doesn't really convey her abilities. I just checked her Wikipedia page, and besides a passing mention of her HSAM its pretty spare. I seem to remember (ba-dum-tiss) that it used to be mote comprehensive.
criddell 3y ago
They asked for verifiable facts. I think those answers fit that criteria perfectly.

khazhoux 3y ago

> truly, who cares that she can remember what was playing on Netflix three years ago? That's kind of the point, though -- she retains trivial information that 99.9999% of brains will discard.

poulsbohemian 3y ago
Sure, and that’s kinda interesting in a savant way, but what was less clear to me from the article is whether she’s actually strong at memories where there is consciousness.

coldtea 3y ago

>This is fascinating, but I’m left confused at the banality. Maybe it’s just the way the article was written, but truly, who cares that she can remember what was playing on Netflix three years ago? Anybody who can understand the implications this has for understanding how memory works, creating memory enhancing drugs or gene alterations, and enhancing human cognition? I mean, DUH!

poulsbohemian 3y ago
I mean - is that really the case? It almost sounds like she’s just passively absorbing banal shit rather than there being any kind of consciousness. Kinda like a camera with an endless hard drive. Interesting, but what do you do with it?
- coldtea 3y ago
  >It almost sounds like she’s just passively absorbing banal shit rather than there being any kind of consciousness. So? They don't want to use her as a trove of historically important information, but to study her as a person which "super memory". For that, it doesn't matter if it's about human anatomy, quantum physics, or what was said in every episode of Melrose Place. The mechanism by which those are absorbed and retained, and in such quality and recall is what's interesting, the content is not important. >Kinda like a camera with an endless hard drive. Interesting, but what do you do with it? If I was an engineer for a storage company I'd very much like to know how an "endless hard drive" works. It would solve tons of storage and archiving problems, and could make trillions. For human memory, a 2x or 3x or 10x increase in storage/recall efficiency would be a huge thing.
  - poulsbohemian 3y ago
    Sorry, I don’t think I’m making myself very clear… I think what I’m after here is almost like survivorship bias. Yes, she’s remembering all these things, but I’m wondering about all the things she isn’t either remembering or in control of remembering that would have otherwise been within here sphere to have remembered. From the article it wasn’t clear to me what control she actually has over any of this. Does that make sense?

jamestimmins 3y ago

The article mentions that given she is 18 years old and still in school, she mostly is aware of pop culture events and entertainment, but is less aware of current events or the broader world. This is pretty normal. Most kids aren't keeping up on politics or business news, especially if they're hyper focused on school (as she seems to be).